John Lennon thought he was just a kid… but The Beatles guitarist George Harrion was a quick learner – Sunday Post

JOHN LENNON thought he was just a kid — in the end, though, George Harrison proved himself The Beatles’ fastest learner.

In their earliest days, Paul McCartney would always have the fresh-faced teenage George tagging along with him, but Lennon felt he was wet behind the ears.

The truth, however, was that George had already put in the hours and mastered all those American guitar tricks that neither John nor Paul could do!

Later, George would continue to outdo them with some of the band’s greatest numbers.

It must have galled him when Frank Sinatra described his Something as a Lennon-McCartney song, but it was from the pen of Harrison, as was Here Comes The Sun, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Taxman and others.

This weekend, the world remembers George, who would have been 74 on Saturday.

To mark the occasion, an impressive box set of every solo recording comes out on good old-fashioned vinyl records, as does a special George Harrison turntable to play them on, and an expanded version of a book featuring his works.

George had a sad last few years before his death at just 58, having throat cancer surgery in 1998, being attacked by a knife-wielding intruder the next year, and having to deal with lung cancer and a brain tumour in 2001, the year in which he died.

From an era where Jimi Hendrix and the like were still to happen, George had some unusual role models for his guitar work.

George Formby was one, and he developed a deep and lasting love for the modest ukulele, building up a large collection of the tiny instruments and often presenting them to anyone he liked the look of!

He also loved Django Reinhardt, who was a legendary master of guitar despite having lost the use of two fingers in a fire.